WRT 102
December 4th, 2012

A CHRISTMAS MEMORY AND TRUMAN CAPOTE’S CHILDHOOD Truman Capote is one of famous American authors in 20th century. He had many contributions to American modern literature. His works are quite variety such as non-fiction, short stories, novels and plays. Some of his works helped him to reach the peak of literature and made other writers have to be jealous of (Capotebio.com). However, he ever had a fierce childhood and complicated family background. These things had a strong effect on many his literary works. One of Truman’s famous works which reveal specifically and exactly his childhood is “A Christmas Memory”. This story tells about the childhood of Truman in Monroeville and Truman himself ever said, “Monroeville is bound up with my childhood more than any other things. It has a queer power over me and the way I write and think (Rudisill and Simmons 24).” Truman spent his childhood without love from both of his parents. He was born on September 30, 1924. His birth father is Arch Persons and his mother is Lillie Mae Faulk (Capotebio.com). Truman’s original full name was Truman Streckfus Persons but he changed his name to be Capote because of confliction between him and his father. His birth father was very angry and resent about the change of Truman’s name (Rudisill and Simmons 17). His parents were divorce when he was four years old (Capotebio.com). Truman’s father was born and bred in a well-to-do family in Troy. He was jobless when he got married with Truman’s mother, Lillie Mae. At that time both of them were still very young. Truman’s parents had to depend on Arch’s family for financial support. The confliction of a newly married couple arouse when Arch’s family no longer supported them. Arched finally found a job at Streckfus Steamship Company and was paid only $450 a month because he had no work experience. Obviously with this low wage, he could not provide his wife who always wanted high-class life a life as she desired (Rudisill and Simmons 85). The other reason for this break-up is that Arch and his wife did not have the common voice in their sexual life. The demand for sex of Lillie Mae was so huge while her husband was so apathetic (Rudisill and Simmons 87). No satisfaction in sexual life and no financial securities made Lillie Mae come to the final decision, divorce. The birth of Truman Capote is somehow miracle and he owes his life to his cousin, Jennie Faulk. When finding out that she was pregnant, Truman’s mother came back Monroeville and intended to abort. After a drastic debate between Lillie Mae and Jennie, finally Jennie persuaded Lillie to keep giving birth and she would undertake to take care of the baby (Capotebio.com). This is just the start of Truman’s tough childhood. Lillie Mae gave Truman to Jennie right after she left the hospital. Lillie Mae just wanted to stay as far as possible away from her son. Truman started to spend his childhood with his cousins: Jennie, Callie, Sook and Bud Faulk whose house was on Alabama Avenue in Monroeville. In the story “A Christmas Memory” the boy who is seven years old, Buddy, also lives far away from his parents and only has memorable time with one of his cousins. Truman’s happiest years as a youth were spent in this town. Jenny, Callie, Sook and Bud Faulk were the distant cousins with whom Truman shared his childhood…It was the kind of home that gathers memories like dust, a place filled with laughter and joy, pain and heartbreak (Rudisill and Simons 27) The old lady character in the story who is sixty-something (Capote 437) is Sook. She was the one who is closest to Truman among cousins. Sook took care of Truman as if she was his mother and she also had an important impact on Truman’s life later. Sook somehow was very childlike and she was “the youngest in mind and spirit” among sisters in family. (Clarke 16)
Sook was like a little shadow in the mainstream of our lives, but she taught us many good things. From her we learned to love and respect nature, to care for helpless and friendless creatures, and to see beauty things that otherwise went unnoticed (Rudisill and Simmons 94).
Obviously she had the good impact on Truman. In the story we know that the old lady “has never wished someone harm” or “let a hungry dog go hungry”. The old lady in the story is described as the person who is good-nature and kind-hearted. She also was a good Christian, never went to anywhere more than five miles away from homes, never read anything except Bible. This is what Sook is described in the book of Clarke: She had rarely left Monroe Countr; she had never read anything but the Bible and Grimm’s fairy tales in all of her adult years; and she had never been to a movie. (Clarke 16) Buddy and the old lady spent a lot of time for doing outdoor activities and mixing themselves with the nature. In spring they took flowers, herbs, wild ferns for their porches. In summer they pile their buggy with picnic stuff and fishing pole take it to the edge of a creek (Capote 437). It seems that Sook was the one who showed Truman how interesting and beautiful nature is during Truman’s childhood. In real life, Truman used to help Sook to gather the pecans for her Christmas cakes and Sook taught him how to fly a kite (Clarke 21). They also made fruitcake and then sent them to relatives and people whom Sook admired such as “the man who peddle tinware from a wagon or President and Mrs. Roosevelt. (Clarke 17). Truman described all of these events in his work “A Christmas Memory”. Sook was really like Truman’s friend and mother. In contract to Sook, in Truman’s eyes “Callie and Jennie were view as cold and unloving, as purse-mouthed and pinchpenny spinsters.” (Clark 23). Callie, one of Sook’s cousins, also was a good Baptist lady as Sook. She usually tried to made Truman memory 23rd. Psalm and Ten Commandments. She used to take Truman to Sunday school (Clarke 23). His own memory of his religious instruction saw him constantly being marched off to church, with no more choice than the prisoners who worked in chain gangs on the road outside town. (Clarke 23)
Now we understand why Truman or Buddy in a story was very upset and disappointed when he received Sunday “school shirt” as well as a “year’s subscription to a religious magazine for children” for his Christmas gifts (Capote 444). On the other hand, there was a blind boy who is Sook and Truman’s neighbor. Sook had compassion for this boy and usually gave him cakes or cookies. Sook also let the boy play the piano in their Jennie’s house every afternoon. There was the beautiful friendship between Sook and this blind boy. One day the boy died when he was still very young and Sook was very sorrowful in a long time (Rudisill and Simmons 98). It seems that the character Buddy who died in the 1880’s is based on this blind boy (Capote 437). Truman’s childhood was surrounded by the old-age ladies, his cousins. They has a lot of impacts on character of Truman. It is easy to understand why there is femininity in his character. Sook used to take him up to attic and dress him up like a girl. Putting a bonnet on his head, slipping faded white arm-length gloves on his hands, wrapping a feathered boa around his neck, and fitting his feet into embroidered slippers (Grobel 60) After the divorce, Lillie Mae was given custody of Truman by judge, and then she took him to New York with her and her second husband. At this time, Truman’s name also was changed to be Capote after his step father Joseph Garcia Capote or Joe Capote. They lived in house which was rented by Joe in New York (Clarke 36-39). This is Truman’s “new home” which he mentioned in “A Christmas Story” (Capote 445). Nina, Truman’s mother (at this time she changed her name), was very angry and felt embarrassing when she found out that her son was not “normal” like other boys. What truly bothered her about Truman, what she found embarrassing and intolerable, and what she could not accept, was something he could do nothing about: his effeminate, girlish behavior. (Clarke 42) She nagged him, intimidated him, and belittled him. She also took him to two different psychiatrists and hoped that Truman would become a true boy. However shortly after, she gave up on psychiatric method. Then she sent him to Trinity school, one of New York’s oldest and best private schools for boys. However in here Truman was harassed sexually by a man teacher. After trying in many ways, Nina thought that sending Truman to military school was the only way to make him become ordinary and “more masculine” (Biography.com). In the story “A Christmas Story “Those who know best” send Buddy to military school. However the St. John military school did the exact opposite of what Nina thought it would do for her son. He was the sexual prey for several cadets because of his girlish beauty. Truman was too pretty, too delicate and fair-skinned (Grobel 60). Truman said: I was afraid of most of the boys at St. John’s. They took sex very seriously. Instead of making me happy and secure, being chased after like that had the opposite effect. It was as if I were in prison. (Clarke 46) However Truman has never tried to hide his femininity side. Instead, he tried to expand it. He said, “I just felt things would be easier for me if I were a girl. (Clarke 43)” Capote also ever said, “I never had any problem with being homosexual. (Grobel 60)” The relationship between Truman and his mother become worse and worse in the fullness of time. “Truman and his mother had never been close. (Rudisill and Simmons 12) About Truman’s Father, despite of calling his son “little angel”, Arch rarely spent time with his son. Arch always failed to keep his promise to Truman. He promised Truman a lot of fascinating things which Truman really wanted such as a dog, a book. However Truman received neither the dog nor the books. One time, Arch promised that he would take Truman one of the beaches on the Gulf Coast. Truman was so happy and he bought a new swimsuit and prepared everything for the trip. However Arch did not keep his promise and he never took Truman to the beach even one time. Pinnacle of desperation which made Truman heart-broken is the lunch in Mobile event. Arch promised that he would take Truman as well as his friends to lunch in Mobile. This time he came, piled everybody into his car and set off for Mobile. However in the restaurant Arch asked Truman for two dollars which Sook had given him to buy some books to pay for the lunch. Truman said “I never trusted him again after that (Clarke 25).” Afterward in one letter which Truman sent to Arch, he wrote, “I would appreciate it if in the future you would address me as Truman Capote, as everyone knows me by that name. (Clark 38) During his childhood, Truman never received any love from both of his parents. The only happy period which Truman had during his childhood time is the time when he stayed with Sook, his wonderful “mother” as well as his best friend. In “A Christmas story”, Truman wrote, “home is where my friend is, and there I never go (Capote 445).” In Truman’s mind only the place where he and Sook spent time together and share common memories is Truman’s real home. The life of Capote turned into a new page when he came to Greenwich High School where he got an opportunity to express his talent in writing (Capote – World Authors). Since that time, Truman has written, published his works and became a famous author. Family and childhood are the main inspiration for Truman in many his literature works. Most of the events in the story “A Christmas Memory” are based on the real story of Truman’s childhood. Through “A Christmas Memory” we can both the happy moments of innocent childhood and the moments when the child lost his innocent childhood. Truman also shows us what real family is and what family is not.